Thursday, February 16, 2017

Narmada Seva Yatra - a con job

Religious
sentiments are frequently used by political parties in power to garner votes at
the polls. This has happened more in BJP regimes than ever before. Hence one
witnesses a series of religious festivals that are hyped up and celebrated with
fanfare with generous inputs from the government treasury.

Narmada Seva Yatra
is one such hyped up campaign supposedly to conserve the highly venerated River
Narmada that flows through Madhya Pradesh for a little more than a thousand
kilometers of its highly polluted course of more than 1300 kilometres – down to
the Arabian Sea on the Gujarat coast. This is claimed to be the world’s biggest
campaign of this nature for conservation of a river.

After holding the Simhast Mela, which is in fact the 12-yearly Kumbh in Ujjain last year, the chief minister probably could not
find an issue which he could hype up involving the general public. He seemed to
have found Narmada Seva Yatra a good
medium to earn encomiums. This is nothing but an attempt at a kind of alchemy
of Hindu piety with river conservation.

Surprisingly, however, the same government did
not move even an inch after Anil Madhav Dave, a Member of Parliament of BJP
from the state and now Central Minister for Environment, toured up and down the
banks of the same river a few years ago and not only briefed the government
about what all he found but also wrote a tome on his travels. Narmada – they
call it Ma Narmada – is as polluted as any other river in India. It gets
industrial effluents as also sewage from the cities and towns on its banks.
Snatches of Dave’s report were published in newspapers.

Time was when it was pristine – but no, such
is not the case any longer. And this fact has not been hidden from the
government which has been aware of the progressive pollution of the river. One
recalls an important minister of the government found dharmashalas in Amarkantak, the town at the source of Narmada,
discharging their sewage into the Narmada River. At that time neither this
minister nor the government ever thought of saving at least the source of the
venerated river from pollution. But now without any seeming provocation the
government launched the Seva Yatra to
build awareness about the need for its conservation. The intention was perhaps
totally different; maybe, to try and remain in public eye and win public
approbation for (non-existent) commitment to the Holy River. And hopefully, the
approbation might eventually get converted into votes.

That
this is a fraud being played out has apparently been missed by the people at
large. A look at the “key facts” of the campaign would reveal the campaign’s
hollowness. Among the things that are indicated to be done are:

·

“All
the villages along the river will have Narmada
Seva Samitis. These Samitis will
take follow-up action on measures to be undertake for its preservation

·

“ "Trees
will be planted along the banks of Narmada. Participation of public and society
will be ensured in it. It will cover more than 1900 kms. in 16 districts

·

" "'Districts
and villages along the banks will have the facility to treat sewage water
before it discharge into the river(sic)

·

“The
yatra holds religious, social and
scientific importance of the river to create awareness about its conservation”
(whatever that means!).

It
has also been stated that the journey of around 118 days will be monitored by a
core team of 50 persons. “The yatra
will comprise of (sic) workshops and
public meetings.”

Various
aspects of conservation of the river have been kept delightfully vague. For
instance, the Narmada Seva Samitis are expected to take follow-up action on
measures to be taken for the river’s “preservation”, but it has not been
indicated what those measures are or would be. It has also been indicated that
sewage will be discharged into the river after treatment by sewage treatment
plants (STPs) but no one knows when this will be done. STPs in the villages and
towns on the banks of the river are mostly conspicuous by their absence. No
time frame has been indicated about having the STPs up and running. It has
conveniently remained unmentioned. The journey stated to be of 118 days down
the banks of the river will be monitored by a “core team” of 50 persons but the
statement is blank about what the monitoring would be about and who would be
included in the team which is supposed to be a “core team” but one does not know
of what. The whole thing does not make
any sense, particularly when it emanates from the government.

Of
all the things, the biggest omission is the total absence of any mention of
sand mining in the river. Narmada is being stripped for years of its sands in a
big way and this is what is destroying the river. A report recently had said
that even mid-stream sand-mining is being carried out which can severely damage
the river’s bed. The mining is so rampant that the courts have had occasions to
opine in the matter. The government, however, is procrastinating by talking of inviting
experts to come and tell it about the impact of sand mining on the river. The
government has departments of water resources and environment working for it
which should be aware of the effects of uncontrolled sand mining on rivers. If
not that, there is a huge amount of literature available on the subject
including a large number of research papers by Indians. And yet, the government
has been using the ruse of inviting experts and consulting them.

The
fact, however, appears to be the involvement of political biggies in sand
mining in Narmada. For a long time a rumour has been floating around in the
state about the involvement of chief minister and his family in Narmada sand
mining. Recently the Indian National Congress has made a direct allegation
against the chief minister about the matter with photographic evidence. It
seems his close relatives are indulging in sand mining and probably, hence, the
procrastinations. Sand is big money and clamping down on sand mining would hurt
his family and others. It would hit the builders’ lobby as well which also distributes
big money to politicians and bureaucrats.

Besides,
how can one expect this government to conserve Narmada when it has not been
able to properly conserve the relatively much smaller sheet of water, viz.
Upper Lake in the state capital that serves drinking water to 40% of the city’s
populace? Experts of the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology of
Ahmedabad who were asked by the government to suggest ways to conserve the Lake
submitted their report in 2013 but the same has not seen the light of day so far.
When the government and its allied agencies have not shown any interest in conserving
the two rivers that feed the lake and a bunch of others that once used to flow
through the capital how can it be expected to save Narmada? For want of
functioning STPs raw sewage is still flowing into the lake through as many as
eight drains. Constructing STPs for all discharges from the towns and villages
on the Narmada banks is, therefore, just tall talk signifying nothing.

The
Narmada Seva Yatra is, therefore, is not for serving the interests of the Holy
River; it is only to hood wink the people. One wonders how Amitabh Bachchan and
Lata Mangeshkar have commended it. It
is, to repeat, a fraud that is being played out on the people.

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About Me

There would seem to be no point in talking about the position I used to hold. What is more relevant today is that I am retired from the service of government of India where I worked for thirty four years in senior positions ending just below the top of my department. I retired more than twenty years ago. To be fruitfully engaged I took to blogging and writing articles, initially, on local issues but now for years I have been writing on topical and environmental matters. The writings in the local supplement of a national daily gave me some kind of a positive identity in the town which culminated in my being nominated to be a founder member of Bhopal Citizens' Forum, a powerful pressure group. I am , I think, fruitfully engaged and I have no complaints against life.